Football and two-wheels, living the simple contented life out of Veroda

By Armstrong Vaz

I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bicycle. I love my bicycle. I love my bicycle. These are the often-repeated words on the lips of Caitan Lawrence Fernandes, who has made cycling his most preferred mode of transport. He does not says it with the same intensity as his smooth flowing bicycle axle. His bicycle has taken him from Cuncolim to different places in Goa. His bicycle has made him explore all different places.

A Veroda resident, Caitan is in early forties, his cycling takes him to his two other loves -- football and music. Music is now his bread and butter. He now blows the bugle with regularity at various village feat novenas and feasts.

Village brass bands playing at village feast novenas are becoming scare over the years, and Caitan is one of the few musicians trying to maintain the Goan legacy. He also beats the drum for the brass band when this situation demands.

He also sets the fireworks going at feast novenas. His handling of fireworks literally turned out to be brush with fire. He got himself doused with fireworks once at the Ambelim feast. Fortunately, he came out of the agony and pain to live for another day and to cycle his way through Goa.

The scars of the fire effect are evident on his lips and face. The first incident has not demoralized him but made him determination all the more stronger.

Caitan has faced many a tragedies in life. Losing his wife at an early age with young children around him was one such tragedy which has countered through a iron will.

Football is his love and cooking was his profession. A profession which took him to the Gulf. His fellow-neighbour and another Cuncolkar, Avertano Furtado, played the role of a good samatarian. Furtado's catering company in Kuwait first gave Caitan his first professional break in the kitchen department. (Incidentally, Furtado, in the 'eighties and 'nineties, helped many a Goans to make a living in the Gulf through his company.) Thereafter, he has served at oil rigs based in Singapore and in the Dubai, he informs.

Caitan played football with the ward-boys but his love for football -- in this soccer-crazy heartland of Goa -- is profound.
Argentinean football legend Diego Armando Mardonna is his most favourite all-time footballer.

Among current Indian footballers, he likes Sanvordem-born Alvito D”Cunha. A profound Vasco Sports Club fan, Caitan adores the older generation of footballers Catao Fernandes, Domnic D'Souza and Zai. The first two formed part of the famous ABCD combination of Vasco Sports Club, the other two been Andrew and Bernard.

Recalling one incident he would not forget in a hurry, he narrated that at one Rovers Cup tournament at Mumbai, for a match between Mohan Bagan and Dempo at Cooperage, he could not manage to get match ticket. Left with no alternative, he climbed a nearby tree to have glimpse of the final match. Policemen played a spoilt-sport for Caitan, as they landed a few lathis on his back before he was brought crushing down to the surface.

Caitan affirsm that he has been a frequent visitor to the matches at the Nehru Stadium at Fatorda, and adds that only once he was given a free pass for the match by a fellow spectator.

A deeply religious person, whenever he travels on his cycle to Panjim, he attends mass and then proceeds to his onward destination. The stop is at Verna for mass, and while returning from Panjim, he has lunch at Cortalim. He also makes it a point while returning from Panjim to garland the Cross at Bambolim.

His cycle trips has taken him uptil Borim and until Cancona, at the very extreme end of Goa, and also to Sanvordem and Sanguem, the easternmost point. He also makes it point to cycle his way to match venues in Salcete whereever the Cuncolim intervillage team plays.

"Franky Pereira is my favourite Cuncolim player and I have so far traveled to Majorda, Benaulim , Curtorim to watch the inter village matches, not to forget my bicycle rides to the neighboring villages,” he points out with pride.

Bicycle rides have become far and few between with the advent of other modes of connectivity between Goa's villages and towns. Caitan is one of the rare breed who continues with his daily chores on cycle as his mode of transport.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Armstrong Vaz is a Goa-based journalist.

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